Professors ask students to participate in weekly anti-Trump demonstrations

In an attempt to prevent “normalizing” the presidency of Donald Trump, a group that includes 22 adult professors from the University of California, Los Angeles is set to stage a weekly demonstration on campus. They have invited the students who attend UCLA to join them as they seek to “bear witness” to Trump’s “totalitarian reign.”

Published in campus newspaper The Daily Bruin, anopen letter penned by history professor Teofilo Ruiz begins:

“A group of students, staffand faculty stand in front of Bunche Hall with protest signs every Monday. We gather there to bear witness to the Orwellian nightmare that is the presidency of Donald Trump, and to let the world know that we cannot let this become normal.”

The letter is titled, “Weekly protests resist normalization of Trump administration.” In it, Ruiz asserts, “We demonstrate because we fear that the mendacious statements, outrageous policies, and sheer administrative incompetence of the Trump administration will eventually exhaust the majority of the people in this country.”

The fear that out of exhaustion Americans will just accept President Trump and his policies leads the group to meet outside the hall named for Ralph Bunche, the first African American to win the Nobel Peace Prize.

According to the letter, Ruiz, a National Humanities Medal honoree, says he believes Trump’s presidency will bring “the destruction of our environment and our liberties” as well as a “return to a world without health care.”

The letter meanders through a hypothetical world where alternative facts, racism, misogyny, and incompetence rule. He then goes on to say that the Trump administration would have Americans forget dictum’s like “ignorance is not knowledge,” “freedom is not slavery,” and “peace is not war”.

As he delves into illegal immigration, Ruiz scorns Americans that support enforcing existing laws.

“We need to proclaim that no human is ever ‘illegal’ and that we are best when we accept the differences of others and embrace them as contributors to our society,” Ruiz writes.

Inferring that the desire to enforce immigration laws comes from fear, Ruiz continues, “Differences are not to be feared. We celebrate differences of opinions, race, ethnicity and national origins. Students, above all people, should know and support these points of view.”

The letter concludes:

“Fight with us for your future, society’s future and our university’s future. We will go on resisting for our children and grandchildren who may have to live in a world in which decades of social progress have been swept away by authoritarian and regressive policies. Please come and join us Mondays from 11:50 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in front of Bunche Hall.”

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